The present invention relates to armored cars and other military vehicle in general and more particularly to a cooling air induction system for an armored car or military vehicle providing a shield protecting the radiator from direct hit but still permitting a substantial flow of cooling ambient air to reach the radiator core to insure efficient heat transfer between an engine coolant and the air.
One of the most vulnerable vital parts of military vehicles when subjected to enemy fire is the engine and more particularly the water and oil radiators, as loss of coolant fluid or lubricating oil results in putting the vehicle out of commission in a very short period of time. Radiators are particularly vulnerable to enemy fire because they are made of a honeycomb structure of very thin relatively soft metal providing a multitude of coolant fluid passageways and air core passageways affording a large heat exchange area surface between the coolant fluid or lubricating oil and the ambient air flowing through the air cores of the honeycomb structure. A single bullet hitting the radiator, or a simple steel rod manually ran through the honeycomb structure, causes a positive loss of fluid with resultant overheating of the engine, which rapidly causes shutdown of the engine and disablement of the vehicle.
Diverse radiator shielding arrangements have been proposed in the past. Such arrangements may take the form of a single plate shield placed in front of the radiator, which provides only limited protection and presents the inconvenience of hampering free flow of cooling air to the radiator cores. Attempts have been made to protect military vehicle radiators with a venetian blind like arrangement of steel slats remotely operated from the interior of the vehicle from a normally open position, to a partially closed or fully closed position under combat environment. However, when the radiator slats are partially or totally closed, full flow of cooling air to the radiator cores is considerably reduced or entirely eliminated, with the accompanying result of preventing free heat exchange between the coolant and the ambient air, causing in turn overheating of the engine.
The present invention remedies the inconvenience of the prior art by providing efficient shielding of a motor vehicle radiator against direct hit by projectiles, while still affording an unimpeded flow of cooling air through the radiator cores and into the engine compartment.